Democratic Party of Georgia forms Bryan County committee

Courtesy of JJ Belemare/For Bryan County Now The newly-formed Bryan County Democratic Party held its first meeting last Thursday at the Crossroads Center in Richmond Hill. At the meeting, the party elected its officers. They are (from left to right): Andrea Conrad (chair), Andrew Hoke (Vice Chair), Sarah Hyder (Treasurer), Ed Sprole (Vice Chair) and Johanna Redeye (Secretary).

Around 25 percent of Bryan County voters in November’s elections cast their ballots for Democratic candidates, with nearly all the rest going to Republicans. As deep a shade of red as that is, Andrea Conrad is aiming to change those numbers.

Conrad, director of the Savannah office of the Democratic Party of Georgia, recently helped form the Bryan County Democratic Party with Amy Tavio and others. The committee held its first meeting Feb. 21 at the Crossroads Center in Richmond Hill, where it elected five officers and 10 county post holders and adopted bylaws.

“We had about 25 people in attendance, including representatives from each commission district in the county, and we had people from Richmond Hill, Pembroke and Ellabell there,” said Conrad, who was elected as the county party’s chairwoman.

Conrad credited Tavio for originally organizing the committee.

“She had been speaking to people for over a year now, and we were trying to get the timing just right to start up,” Conrad said. “We didn’t want to start this during the November elections, so we figured now was the right time.”

Conrad said the party will try to hold meetings at least every other month, with the next one ideally happening sometime in late March, and those meetings will rotate between south Bryan and north Bryan locations.

Conrad is not at all unfamiliar with the political landscape. A graduate of Kansas State University, she worked with several women’s groups in college and became involved in city government. Upon moving to Savannah, she was appointed as a field officer of the state party and became director of the Savannah headquarters when it opened in February 2012.

She spent last year working on both Lesli Messinger’s congressional campaign in the 1st District as well as campaigns for local Chatham County candidates. And of course, she volunteered on President Barack Obama’s quest for re-election.

“I do a lot of work back and forth between this area and at the state level in Atlanta, so I have experience on all levels — pretty intensively as a political insider, but also campaign work,” Conrad said.

Conrad said the immediate goal of the Bryan County Democratic Party will be to present voters with more choices at the polls.

“From the results of the 2012 election, we know there was roughly 23 to 25 percent of Bryan County voters who voted for Democrats, so we want accurate representation for them, and we also want, as Democrats, to have a choice on the ballot for next year’s municipal and gubernatorial elections,” she said. “We want to be able to choose someone other than the incumbent, which has largely been the case here for quite some time. And maybe for independents, or even Republicans who aren’t happy with an incumbent, we want them to have a choice, too.”

Conrad said the state party plans to run candidates next year in Bryan County, though they don’t know who or what districts they will be targeting just yet. Still, Conrad said the party will be actively pursuing seats and is optimistic about its chances.

“When we’re talking about gubernatorial election years, we know the turnout and participation is not as high as national elections, so it could be possible that we win some elections if we can have a strong democratic base in Bryan County,” Conrad said. “However, we’re trying to recruit people who don’t vote regularly or not in the offseason as well as unidentified voters, more independent or libertarian, who don’t necessarily identify with the Republican Party. They would be a big target for us.”

To contact or get involved with the party, email Conrad at andrea@georgiademocrat.org. The party also has a Facebook page listed as a closed group — “Bryan County Democratic Party.”

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We have an uphill challenge here as well, but we are making progress FORWARD and growing. We just elected new officers as well, and will hopefully have an article and photo to share. Our aim is to identify values we ALL have in common and push Georgia FORWARD to meet the challenges of the 21st century.